This application discloses an invention which is related, generally and in various aspects, to a luminaire which includes light emitting diodes.
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are an energy efficient, highly reliable technology that is finding considerable utility in replacing fluorescent lamps in many lighting applications. An issue with LEDs that limits their utility is that they are point sources as opposed to continuous sources of light. This creates unacceptable glare or poor aesthetics in many lighting applications. Prior to the invention disclosed herein, there was no known luminaire which could efficiently convert the point source illumination from LEDs into a light output distribution similar to that of fluorescent lamps. That is to say, there was not a known LED-based luminaire which has an even distribution of luminance across its luminous surface and whose form factor is similar to that of fluorescent lamps.